The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questionsj are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
Absolutely yes. I collect a lot of different cards; I don’t go by “what will be worth more in x years” or “expensive = great card.” But when I open boosters, I’m actually disappointed if I don’t get a high-value card. But still better than sitting in a casino, I guess.
I understand the point of opening boosters and pulling your chase card. But most of the time, it’s just cheaper to buy them directly. It’s just a lot of fun to open boosters. I’ve been opening them a lot less since covid, I guess. Before, the display prices were much more reasonable, €3 for a booster. You can’t find them for that price anymore.
I think so, if you are expecting to get a hit or “get your money back or make a profit”.
I think it’s different if you just enjoy ripping packs for the fun of it with zero expectations.
I mainly purchase singles, but I’ll pay a random pack every now and then. I think it’s very similar to purchasing a lottery ticket at a convenience store.
I don’t think it’s so clear either way in this case, but I will pose this question:
Where do you think the fun of pack ripping comes from? The fun of revealing the mystery contents to me feels like it comes from the same root psychological place as the fun of gambling. And plenty of gamblers go into a casino just for fun fully understanding they won’t win either.
I’m not sure it makes sense to always consider it gambling in the same way lottery tickets are gambling. But at the same time ripping packs scratches that same itch. The thrill comes from being in the liminal headspace of anticipation. Ripping packs, opening loot boxes, pulling the slot lever… they are all the same in that aspect at all. What differs is what you physically get out of it.
However I think there’s a lot more to it than that. I’d argue that there are a few things that make something unadulterated gambling:
Making money is the main reason for participating
Players gamble with real money and get paid out real money or something controvertible into real money instantly and with next to no effort (e.g. chips)
Other than the experience, players receive nothing for your money if you lose
The game is rigged such that over the long run, players losing money is a certainty
The “house” is a business which offers nothing more than the opportunity to occasionally profit if you get lucky
Buying booster packs from TPCi or a retail store certainly fulfills some of these criteria. The game is rigged, Pokemon is making a profit off of you. For many people, opening packs in the hopes of pulling a hit and making money is their main reason for participating.
Other criteria are more unclear. You pay real money for packs, but you get out cards. Cards do have a “market value” but there are a few steps to go through before you can get cash for the card. You have to list it on eBay, ship it, wait for the transfer to go through, or go to a specialty store and sell it. You can also participate in Pokemon collecting without the goal of profiting off of opening the packs.
Others don’t apply. You still get 10 cards for your money even if you don’t get a hit, these days that includes 2 reverses and a holo per pack. Pokemon also isn’t a casino, they offer games and merchandise based on their intellectual property that they created.
I think these reasons are why to us, booster packs seem much more palatable than something like third-party mystery boxes. For example, a company like Courtyard offering $1000 online “Pokemon mystery packs” gets much closer to unadulterated gambling. You can instantly sell your pulled card at 80% of market, which makes any card easily controvertible into money. The company itself has no intellectual property and only offers the chance of getting lucky on a good pull. Sure, you might get something if you “lose,” but you can’t exactly collect from Courtyard online rips––the available cards have no coherence or collectibility. Making money is really the only reason why you would buy one.
The ONLY time when opening packs doesn’t feel entirely like gambling (which coincidentally is pretty much the only time I open packs anymore) is during a pre-release tournament where I’m mainly paying to play some Pokémon with new cards, and good pulls are a cherry on top rather than the only thing that matters.
